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Sorry about that. Two rides planned to day in the area. The Old Bike Club rode this mourning to Holly Springs, Ms. for lunch at Phillips's Grocery.. I couldn't make that ride, sure wanted to. Holly Springs is such a beautiful antebellum town. I stayed home and fixed a lunch for my mother. Grilled out hamburger steaks, backed beans, corn on the cobb, etc., all good. Going for the 2nd ride. The Memphis Mummies are meeting at Young Av. Deli. for the Memphis in May Poker Run 2:30. I think 5 stops. Marion Barry's my name and pokers's my game. Yea Right.

Studied up on the Mummies secret 5 stop poker ride. Figured out that Kudzi's was the last stop and that most of the stops were beer joints. Showed up at Kudzu's just ahead of the poker riders. Got to talking with Dennis at the bar. He was complaining that there was a lot of bar stops and little riding. I just smiled and agreed. It was nice to see some cool bikes. May head out to the winery this afternoon.

My old bud Ron Wigington finally got his R90 up and running and wanted me to meet him and go for a ride. we agreed to meet at the Old Millington Winery yesterday. I rode the R50 and got there first. Went in and got a bottle of Delta Blush. Perry the owner came out and visited with me, he likes it when I come over and stop in. Wanted to know about groups of bike clubs and cars that come to the winery. He said some were causing trouble, due to attitudes and their actions. Scooter groups and the BMW River City Bimmers, the local BMW car club were some of the offenders. Very demanding and cheap. Wanted to free taste all the wine varieties and never buy any wine. Kinda embarrassed me. I feel like an ambassador of the BMW brand, even though I don't own a BMW auto. I was on a vintage car racing team for many years and got to be around quite a few of the Euro vintage car crowd. Most were as nice as could be, but their were allways a few who had the superior attitude. Those that had that mind set were usually arrogant with just about everything. I have never understood it. Ron showed up and we finished the wine and took off riding. As with a lot of Memphians, he was totally lost for most of the ride. Their boundries are the city limits. Took him along the River Bluffs, very much like being in the Ar. Ozarks. My R50 ran flawlessly and his R90 ran good, it's a work in progress. Great day for a ride. Excellent!

RAms June Meeting Grassroots Bike Show

BMWRAMS will be having their June meeting in Cape Giradeau this weekend. The meeting will be held in conjunction with the Vintage Bike Show June 9 sponsored by Grassroots. Grassroots has more details on their website. Rams will be camping out at the Thebes RV Campground in Thebes Il.

Very nice and fitting ceremony to honer the Battle of Memphis and it's surrender to Union fores in June 1862. After the Civil War Memphis had a battery of real Civil War cannon on display in Confederate Park. In !942 due to WWII those pieces were donated to the war drive for metal. After the war they were replaced with WWII artillery pieces, not really appropiate for a Civil War era park. The WWII pieces have been removed and 2 replica Civil War pieces were unvailed and dedicated at the event. Both pieces were fired several times and were quite impressive. A fine tribute to our Civil War vets.

Bikes on Beale again.

Road back over to Memphis last night for Bikes on Beale, perfect weather, nice crowd. We had a usual spot with our classic and vintage bikes. Got a pleasant surprise when I spotted Steve Hitt and his wife walking down the street admiring all the bikes. Steve is the current president of The Naturally Beemers of Arkansas. He said he never saw such a site and was quite impressed with the show of bikes. I laughingly told him that most of the members of the Ar. club didn't like riding across flat east Ar. and eating all the bugs. I suggested he write a story about his trip across east Ar. and the good time he and his wife had at Bikes on Beale in Memphis. I told him if I wrote it , it would be taken as East Ar. propganda and not to be believed. . Excellent night on Beale, the weather is cooperating.

As usual last Wendesday nite was Bikes on Beale. I've been after my buddy Ron to bring his '75 R90 down. He works about 2 blocks away on Union Av. across from Redbird Stadium. He finally showed up last Wendesday night and was quite impressed. We saw another R90 go down the street. It was loaded down like a pack mule, reminded me of me 20 years ago on my R90. We went down the street and found him. He was a new college grad from Chicago, chemical engineering, headed to a new job in Houston. Same story, he was amazed with Beale St. Ron was impressed with the pack mule. I'd been telling Ron his bike was good to go on long runs when fully sorted out. It's an amazing world.

Just got back from a freight run to Marysville, Mich. ; Marysville is just south of Port Huron. After that went back to Detroit and went to BMW of Detroit. Just hung out awhile. They had nice 20 year anniversary BMW of D. t-shirt. They had every size but x-large, my size. Augh! Oh well saved me about 20 bucks, got way to many BMW t's allready. Can you have too many? One of their customers showed up on a nice pristeen '70 R75/5 and a German model. It had kilo/hour instead of mph. He said he had since late '70. Picked up a load in Warren and took it to Angola Ind., migrated down to Indianapolis. Went to BMW of Indy. Looked around, a newer used Indian Chief was on display for sell. Those bikes are a real eyefull. Didn't find any bling to buy. Headed south to Louisville and stopped in at BMW/HD Louisville. They had a nice '66 Shovelhead HD on sell, $19 thousand plus. A buddy of mine is restoring one, so I called him to pump him up about his. A couple of H/D lookin dudes were lookin at some used K1200LT's. They seemed really interested so I told him what I knew about them. Gave them the name of a local BMW rider's club president and told them to call him to get more info. I saw a lot of bikes on the road and a few BMW's. Good to get home.

While I was gone on this trip I was informed of the death of a riding buddy. Ed Zaharia was riding in west Tn. and had a wreck involving a deer, Saturday June 19. Funeral service was held yesterday, June 19. I didn't get back in time. Ed was a Harley rider and he usually rode 40 to 50 thousand miles a year; a real rider. I'll miss him.

Beale was over the top as usual. 3 top bikes were Fred Godwin and his early 70's Moto Guzzi V7, Jack Brown and his mid 70's Norton 850 Commando. Both these guys keep all their bikes in immaculate shape. A young guy had an over the top old school Triumph boober and it was getting all sorts of looks and see by all the riders and pedrestrians. It really meets the level of total coolness. I was lookin at bike tags and I'm startin to see a lot of out of state plates, excluding Tn, Ar., Ms. . Riders are comin in from all over.

2112 The Last RTS Rally

Apparently the last Return To Shiloh Rally will be held this year. It has been sponsored by the BMWRAMS for I believe 38 years. There is some conflict with the TVA about the rally. This rally has been held at this site for 38/39? years with the same name and club; not bad. The motto of the rally for years has been 'The Best Rally by a Dam Site'. For this year only, it will be 'The Last Dam Rally'. If I understand correctly the rally this year is FREE to participants. Pay for your camping. Go to the BMWRAMS web site for more info. The date of this last rally is Oct. 5-7. Hopefully the new site will be found and announced at the rally. The times, they are a achangin and the RAMS will move on and the club and new rally will prosper and be better than ever. Look forward to seein all yall at The Last Dam Rally.